How Risky Is a Flight Risk? Try This Case On for Size

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Published: July 4, 2007

What bail is the right bail? It is a question judges face every day, and one a Manhattan judge faced with Solomonic aplomb yesterday in the case of a California woman accused of tricking people into investing in phantom real estate.

Since bail is supposed to ensure the defendant's return to court, not to be punitive, it is customary for prosecutors to claim that the defendant is a flight risk and for the defense to counter that the defendant would never, ever skip town.

But seldom are two tales of fight or flight as diametrically opposed as those heard yesterday in the case of Pam Chanla. The case against Ms. Chanla, 33, was ''very serious,'' Judith Weinstock, a Manhattan assistant district attorney, told the judge in State Supreme Court.

Ms. Chanla and two other women are accused of stealing at least $1.6 million from 23 New Yorkers, and have been indicted on 48 counts of scheming to defraud and other charges. The investors were told they could double their money by investing in California property that would be fixed up and then flipped, but it turned out that the women did not even own most of the property, prosecutors said.

To hear Ms. Weinstock tell it, Ms. Chanla was the ultimate flight risk. She was foreign born, and lacked ties to New York. She swapped identities like a chameleon, using at least two different names, the prosecutor said.

A week ago, detectives with a New York arrest warrant knocked on the door of ''her Los Angeles home,'' the prosecutor said, and found her parents, who ''claimed they had no way of getting in touch with her.''

But when a detective called Ms. Chanla's cellphone, she answered, and said later, through her lawyer, that she wanted to surrender in New York.

Ms. Chanla proceeded to fly to New York last Thursday and back to California for the weekend, then yesterday morning returned to La Guardia Airport, where she was intercepted by detectives, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor demanded $2 million cash bail to keep her from leaving town again ''at her convenience.''

Ms. Chanla appeared in court about noon yesterday wearing handcuffs and casual clothes -- a blue shirt stretched over a slightly bulging belly, khaki Capri pants and stacked sandals. She said a soft ''not guilty,'' then let her lawyer, Ruth Liebesman, do the rest of the talking.

Her recitation was nothing if not Rashomon-like. Although born in Laos, Ms. Chanla is an American citizen and has no passport, the lawyer began. She used two names because Chanla is her married name, and she sometimes goes by her maiden name, ''as I sometimes do, too,'' the lawyer added.

She truly meant to surrender last week, but by the time she met with her lawyer, it was Friday afternoon, and she would have been forced to spend the weekend in jail. So she flew back to her home in San Diego, to be with her two young children, for ''a possible last weekend,'' Ms. Liebesman said.

On top of it all, the lawyer said, her client was pregnant.

With a wry smile, Justice Brenda Soloff more or less split the difference and set bail at $750,000, cash or insurance bond. Ms. Chanla is scheduled to appear on July 27.

Of the two codefendants, one, Carla Zimbalist, is in custody in California, and the other, Jennifer Wilkov, the author of several self-published investment books including ''Dating Your Money,'' pleaded not guilty and posted a $500,000 bail bond secured by $50,000 cash on Monday, prosecutors said.

Ms. Wilkov's lawyer, Barry Bohrer, suggested yesterday that prosecutors might have had dual motives when they made their tough assessment of Ms. Chanla's flight risk. ''If an incarcerated defendant (unable to make excessive bail) suddenly 'sees the light' and decides to cooperate with the authorities, this too is not a development with which a prosecutor would quarrel,'' he said in an e-mail message. ''But is it their goal to punish through the bail-setting process? Perish the thought! That is unconstitutional.''

Ms. Chanla remained in jail, and Ms. Liebesman said she doubted that her client would make bail. As she spelled her name for reporters, Ms. Liebesman made one last request, in a small show of solidarity with her client, who appears on the indictment as Pam Chanla a/k/a/ Sayasith Khammanivong, Ms. Liebesman said.